766: Banned Foods | Skeptical Sunday
The Jordan Harbinger Show
Jordan Harbinger
4.8 • 12.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2022
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why are so many of the snacks and drinks offered as safe for consumption in the United States wholly banned in other parts of the world? How bad could our favorite foodstuffs actually be?
Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and fact-checker, comedian, and podcast host David C. Smalley break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions.
Editor's note: A previous version of this show's notes erroneously declared that aspartame was banned in the EU. We are in the process of correcting this and apologize for the error.
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/766
On This Week’s Skeptical Sunday, We Discuss:- Coffee Mate's liquid version is banned in Europe due to the presence of trans fats (found in hydrogenated vegetable oils) that can lead to heart disease. While the US requires warning labels for these foods, they are still available to consumers.
- Mexican and most European cola brands use cane sugar, while American Coke uses high fructose corn syrup, which is regulated in the EU. High fructose corn syrup has been linked to health issues such as insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular illnesses.
- Aspartame is a low-calorie sweetener found in many US foods and drinks, including diet sodas and gum. It contains phenylalanine, which can cause problems for people with a rare genetic condition called PKU.
- While evidence is still being gathered, there have been concerns about the potential health effects of certain artificial food dyes, particularly their potential to cause hyperactivity in children. In the European Union, these dyes are banned from use in food products, while they are widely used in the United States.
- The EU has banned the use of growth hormones in cows due to concerns about potential health risks to humans and animals, as well as potential negative impacts on the environment. In the United States, however, they're commonly used in the dairy and meat industries to promote faster growth and increase milk production in cows.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Special thanks to Peloton for sponsoring this episode of the Jordan Harbinger Show. |
| 0:08.5 | Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. And this is Skeptical Sunday. A special |
| 0:13.3 | addition to the Jordan Harbinger Show where fact checker and comedian David C. Smalley and I |
| 0:17.6 | break down a topic that you might never have thought about. We open things up and debunk |
| 0:21.9 | common misconceptions. Topics such as Y the Olympics are kind of a sham, |
| 0:26.1 | why expiration dates are a bunch of nonsense, why tipping makes absolutely no sense, recycling, |
| 0:31.7 | band foods, toothpaste, chemtrails, and a whole lot more. Normally on the Jordan Harbinger Show, |
| 0:36.6 | we decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people. And we turn |
| 0:41.1 | there wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. |
| 0:45.7 | We have long form interviews and conversations with a variety of incredible people from spies to |
| 0:50.0 | CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, and performers. If you're new to the show or you want to tell your |
| 0:55.4 | friends about the show around these festive holiday times, I suggest our episode starter packs. |
| 1:00.8 | These are collections of our favorite episodes organized by topic that'll help new listeners |
| 1:05.0 | get a taste of everything that we do here on the show. Topics like persuasion and influence, |
| 1:09.3 | negotiation and communication, China, North Korea, crime and cults, and more. Just visit |
| 1:14.3 | jordanharbinger.com slash start or take a look in your Spotify app to get started. Now we haven't |
| 1:20.0 | done Skeptical Sunday in a while. I'm actually going to be doing these hopefully every week |
| 1:25.0 | in 2023, toying with that idea, but we had to throw this one down this year. Now ban foods. |
| 1:31.0 | We know lots of foods. They're not great for us, but how bad are the bad foods really? |
| 1:35.5 | We see these YouTube videos comparing American products to similar items in the UK or other parts |
| 1:40.3 | of the world and they look so different. So what's going on there? Why are some foods allowed in |
| 1:45.2 | the US but banned in other parts of the world? Comedian fact checker David C. Smolley is here, |
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